What If Superman and Batman Were Brothers?
by turbomagnus
Summary: :What If?: Based on Marvel's What If? comics, a look at two of DC's heroes if someone else had raised Kal El...
1. From Discovery to Justice

Disclaimer and Thanks: I don't own the concept of "What If?", which is the property of Marvel, nor do I own Clark Kent/Wayne - Superman/Shield and Bruce Wayne - Batman and all associated characters, and lines, belong to DC comics.

* * *

What If?  
"What If Superman and Batman Were Brothers?"  
by J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

* * *

Gotham City, where the police are outmatched, where the citizens fear the criminals...

Gotham City, where the criminals fear the night...

"...And in other news, another robbery was thwarted today; The Penguin is now behind bars after trying to steal the Omerus Diamond from the Gotham Museum. Once again, Batman and Shield defeated the bird-themed supervillian. In other news..."

Bruce Wayne muted the TV and turned to his brother, "Clark... we did good."

Clark Wayne smiled, "Bruce, don't we always?"

Gotham City, where the brothers Wayne were the night.

* * *

I am not a Watcher, but I do as they do... I watch, I observe, and I record the differences in realities.

In the world you know, the escape craft carrying the last son of Kypton, Kal-El was found by Jonathan and Martha Kent. They raised him as their own son Clark Kent in Smallville, Kansas, until he moved to the city of Metropolis in his adulthood and worked for the Daily Planet. The mark of the house -El he wore on his chest giving rise to a name of Superman.

However, in the timestream I am now viewing, another couple, Thomas and Martha Wayne, were driving across country at the time that the escape craft crashed, Martha was pregnant with a son and they were returning to Gotham City from visiting friends when their return trip was interrupted by an appearant meteor crashing down not a hundred yards from the road they were on.

* * *

"What was that!" Thomas shouted as he attempted to keep the sedan on the road dispite the shockwaves from the impact.

"Thomas!"

"I'm trying!"

When the chaos finally ended, Thomas Wayne stopped the car and looked out over the field at the smoking crater.

"Stay here, Martha... I'm going to see what that was."

"Thomas... be careful."

Several minutes passed before Thomas returned, surprising his wife by carrying a small bundle in his arms.

"Martha... You are not going to believe this..."

He adjusted the bundle to show his wife the contents; a young baby.

"What was your father's name again, dear?"

"Clark. ...Thomas, you're not thinking of..."

"Clark, Clark Wayne, a fine name for a young man..."

* * *

And it is here that drastic turns seperate this world from the one you are familar with. With the aid of Dr. Leslie Thompkins, it was made to appear that Martha Wayne gave birth to two sons. Two sons who would be orphaned at age eight when a mugging gone wrong took the lives of their parents.

Almost a decade and a half later, a night of crime across Gotham was the night that hope returned to a city that had forgotten how to do so...

* * *

The woman knew she was going to die as the gang member raised his knife... but the expected slash never came, instead, an arm reached THROUGH the concrete wall behind him, grabbing his wrist and pulling him through the wall...

* * *

It was just supposed to be a shortcut home, she thought, not this, as the lights went out. This was gang territory and she could hear them coming closer and closer. She knew that she was going to be another statistic in the Gotham crime rate as the spike-knuckled knife was raised...

Suddenly, four crescent shaped weapons impaled themselves in the arm and the knife was dropped. Flashes of lightning briefly illuminating a single figure laying waste to the criminals.

* * *

"Police phone lines are jammed with citizens discribing what seems to be a seige on Gotham's underworld... by a giant bat..."

A sheet of paper was handed to him and the newscaster read it, "Correction by a giant bat and a man in black..."

* * *

Not long after that night, later to be called the Night of Justice by some, the Signal was installed on the roof of police headquarters, a spotlight that projected the symbol of a bat and shield onto the clouds.

One other major difference in this world was that, because Thomas and Martha were killed, and Alfred Pennyworth was not there that night, Clark grew up with him and Bruce believing he was simply a meta-human, never knowing Clark's true origins.

Some villians never came to be; John Corben was never turned into the Kryptonite powered cyborg Metallo because there was no Superman in Metropolis, Harvey Dent never became Two-Face because Shield was there to save him before he fell into the acid vat.

But others not only existed, but were more powerful; Lex Luthor, without Superman to oppose him, became more powerful in Metropolis until business between LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises brought him to the attention of Gotham's dark heroes and eventually led to his downfall.

And in some cases, good came out of the differences; in one world, the events that led the World's Finest to work together revealed Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne to Lois Lane, who, ironically loved Superman but not Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne but not Batman. Before he left Metropolis, Bruce commented that if only they could trade secret identies. In this world, though, when Wayne Enterprises considered a partnership with LexCorp and Batman and Shield went against Lex Luthor, Lois Lane did enter into a relationship with Clark Wayne. The Dark Guardian was more serious and withdrawn than his Man of Steel counterpart, but the more relaxed part of him that was Clark was enough that the relationship grew.

Because Shield had Batman as a partner, Darkseid's attempt to take the Dark Guardian prisoner and use him as a weapon against Earth failed. It was at this time that Clark finally learned the truth of his Kryptonian heritage. When they returned to Earth, Clark vowed to honor his adopted parents, Bruce's birth parents, and his own birth parents by continuing the fight, a vow Bruce echoed for his own parents and his brother's.

Several years later, the Justice League formed...

* * *

"I've spent years striking fear into the hearts of criminals... at times I've forgotten that bringing hope to the victims is just as important, something that Shield has always been willing to remind me of..."

The Flash, a young man by the name of Wally West chuckled, "So you aren't really as bad a guy as they say, are you, Bats?"

"Don't call him 'Bats,' only I get to call him 'Bats.'" Shield commented, "Brother's rights."

Shield paused, then continued, looking first at his brother, then each of the other five heroes in turn, "In Gotham, Batman and I learned that working together achieves more than working seperately. I believe that if the seven of us stayed together as a team, we could be a force that could truly work for the ideals of peace and justice."

The Flash made another quip, "What, like a bunch of Superfriends?"

"More like a Justice League," Batman answered.

* * *

And now the Justice League...

So many differences, so many similarities. As one member of the League Unlimited once commented, "A is A, and no matter what reality he calls home, Luthor is Luthor."

Be he Clark Kent, 'Superman' or Clark Wayne, 'Shield', the son of Jor-El's destiny is to be a hero, a destiny that he fulfills...


	2. The New League and Dreams

Author's Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE story, which means events that happened in the regular continuality haven't nessaserily happened in this story's continuality... and yes, I know I can't spell. With that said, I hadn't originally planned to continue this story, but the number of responses requesting more led me to do so.

* * *

Today we return to a world we've previously seen, one where the son of Jor-El was raised not as a Kent, but as a Wayne.

For today, the possibilities of what might happen to brothers Clark and Wayne are, as the Justice League is now... Unlimited.

* * *

"There were hundreds of us across the globe, but we nearly failed to repel the Thanagarian Invasion because we had no communication, no teamwork... From now on, we have to be more coordinated than that. We can't be cowboys any more...or cowgirls." With the last bit, Shield looked pointedly at his cousin, Kara, known to the world as Batgirl.

After Darkseid had revealed Clark's true origin as Kal-El, son of Jor-El of the planet Krypton to him, Clark had taken a Wayne Enterprises rocket into space and to the former location of Krypton. Life signs led him to a nearby planet he later learned was Argos, Krypton's sister planet, and his father's brother's family in stasis... Or at least the sole survivor, Kara.

This would later lead to the menace of the computer Brainiac, but at the time, Kara was being welcomed into the family by Bruce and Clark, as well as Clark's ward, Tim, and Bruce's adoptive son and daughter-in-law, Dick and Kory.

That, Clark mused silently, was the scariest part of his life, when Selina, Lois and Kory decided to introduce Kara to life on Earth, including malls... The Wayne fortune took a dent that day.

And unfortunately, his brother's cat-themed occasional girlfriend and occasional rogue took his cousin under her wing to teach her how to fight. A decision that eventually led to Kara taking on the guise of 'Batgirl'.

With a small touch of ego, Clark wondered why not 'Shieldgirl' or something similar...

Which was immediately deflated when he realized that Kara's approach was more like Bruce's than his. Clark shook his head, Bruce got all the luck sometimes.

"J'onn will be up here, it'll be his job to determine who goes where and when. I know a lot of you are used to making those decisions on your own, but we're going to have to be coordinated..."

* * *

The first mission of the new Justice League Unlimited happened much the same as that of the League you already know. Kara, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Captain Atom managed to defeat Brimstone and begin the new life of the League with a victory.

* * *

One week later was the birthday of the Wayne brothers, the publicly known celebration at Wayne Manor, which was followed by a smaller celebration among friends.

That was until Clark had left for the arctic.

Much as Bruce had his own trophy room in the Cave, Clark had built a fortress in the arctic circle for when he needed to get away from everything that contained his own spoils of war. At the party, Bruce had accepted the gifts for his brother and came up with explanations for why he wasn't there, explanations that those who had known them the longest knew didn't fit, but accepted so that Clark could have his privacy.

That had been two days ago, which was why Bruce, or rather his alter ego of Batman and fellow Justice League member Wonder Woman, also known as Diana, Princess of Thymescira, were on their way to Shield's 'Fortress of Solitude.'

The long flight in the Javelin had begun to cause even Batman to feel slightly bored, usually Shield was around for him to plan ideas with, this caused him to do something he rarely did. When they had landed and were walking through the halls of the Fortress, Batman tried to make small-talk, "What'd you get him?"

"I'm not saying anything - he'll hear and spoil the surprise."

"He can hear that too," Batman almost-joked in a whisper, then shrugged, "He's not the easiest person in the world to buy birthday presents for, after almost thirty years I've about given up on it."

Batman held up an envelope and showed it to Wonder Woman

"Bruce...you didn't get him a gift certificate?" Wonder Woman asked, shocked.

"No!" Batman answered, then paused, "...Cash."

It took all of Diana's control not to groan. Anyone who thought Batman was emotionless or Shield was an overgrown schoolboy had never seen the two brothers interact with each other.

Which made her think, what made some of the other League members think she liked Bruce?

Exiled or not, she was still a Princess of Thymescira, and it would be unproper for her to stamp her foot... no matter how much she wanted to. It was always assumed that she liked Bruce or that she liked Clark or that because she was an Amazon she liked other females...

The reason she spent time around Bruce was BECAUSE they weren't involved. Bruce's belief in not being involved with teammates fit well with what her mother had taught her as she grew up about complete trust being needed in love and that kind of trust not existing.

Diana often wondered what had happened to her mother in the past to turn her so bitter towards relationships.

* * *

The events involving the former ruler of Warworld, Mongul and the Black Mercy unfolded much the same as you remember them with Superman. Both Bruce and Clark were forced to face their greatest dreams before Mongul was trapped in the grip of the Black Mercy himself.

While Wonder Woman transported Mongul to the Watchtower, Bruce stayed behind with Clark to try and come to terms with their recent... experiences...

* * *

"You saw them too, didn't you?"

"Not just OUR parents, Bruce... I saw my parents too... They had managed to steal a spacecraft as Krypton was being destroyed and they survived..."

"Dad had fought off the mugger."

"There was me and Lois, and you and Selina, not Catwoman, but Selina."

"I can still see him standing there, not even out of breath."

"I had a son, and you, you and Selina had a daughter."

"It was like something out of the movie we had just seen, Clark... What was her name?"

"Helena. And Jor-El and Dad were talking in that way scientists do, where you can't even understand them, but they can understand each other fine."

"It didn't have the flaws that the Mad Hatter's dream world did those years ago... it was perfect."

"Mom and Dad left us a lot of strength, Bruce... I could see people willingly dying just to experience that."

Batman finally looked around at the icy walls, "I don't know about you, but at the moment I want to get the hell out of here..."

* * *

Later that night, on a bed with silk sheets in a million-dollar mansion miles outside Gotham, Bruce Wayne couldn't sleep. It wasn't his dream with the Black Mercy that was bothering him...

It was Clark's.

Finally, the Dark Knight gave up and picked up the phone, dialing a number he knew all too well.

"Mrow.. M'ello?" A sleepy voice answered with a purr.

"Selina, Bruce... What do you think of the name 'Helena'?"


End file.
